CVE-2023-0821
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedHashiCorp Nomad and Nomad Enterprise 1.2.15 up to 1.3.8, and 1.4.3 jobs using a maliciously compressed artifact stanza source can cause excessive disk usage. Fixed in 1.2.16, 1.3.9, and 1.4.4.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceNomad jobs with a maliciously compressed artifact stanza source can cause excessive disk usage. This is a decompression bomb vulnerability where a small compressed artifact expands to consume disproportionate disk space during extraction, potentially leading to disk exhaustion.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data< 1.2.15>= 1.3.0, < 1.3.9>= 1.4.0, < 1.4.4CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check Nomad server versionRun `nomad version` on all server and client nodes to identify the installed versionAffected if Version is less than 1.2.15, between 1.3.0-1.3.9, or between 1.4.0-1.4.4
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Identify jobs using artifact stanzasRun `nomad job status` to list all registered jobs, then inspect each job with `nomad job inspect <job_id>` or review job specification files for the presence of an `artifact` stanzaAffected if Any job definition contains an artifact stanza with a `source` field pointing to a compressed file (zip, tar, tar.gz, etc.)
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Review artifact source configurationsExamine the `source` URLs in artifact stanzas to identify if they fetch compressed archives from external or internal locationsAffected if Artifact sources reference compressed archives that would be downloaded and extracted by Nomad clients
The environment is affected if Nomad version falls within the vulnerable ranges AND any registered jobs use artifact stanzas with compressed sources that could be maliciously crafted to cause disk exhaustion during extraction.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
dbcve · scoped1.2.151.3.91.4.4
Upgrade Nomad to version 1.2.16, 1.3.9, 1.4.4 or later to patch the vulnerability. Review existing jobs with artifact stanzas for suspicious compressed sources.
Nomad 1.4.4 or later (or 1.3.9, or 1.2.16 if remaining on older branch)
- Review current Nomad cluster configuration and take a backup of the cluster state
- Plan a maintenance window for the upgrade
- Upgrade Nomad server agents to a fixed version (1.2.16, 1.3.9, or 1.4.4) - recommend 1.4.4 or later for latest fixes
- After servers are healthy, upgrade Nomad client agents to the same version
- Verify cluster health and job functionality after upgrade
- Ensure artifact stanza sources in job specifications are from trusted sources to prevent similar issues
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,800.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-0821 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-0821 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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